Delhi International Airport looks to refinance debt via masala bonds

NEW DELHI: Delhi International Airport Ltd is likely to refinance about Rs 3,000 crore of debt by raising money through masala bonds or dollar-denominated paper, a top executive at its parent company said.

The plan was revealed by Sidhartha Kapur, the chief financial officer at GMR Airports that owns a majority stake in the Delhi airport operator. DIAL has total project debt of Rs 4,523 crore.

Masala bonds are rupee-denominated debt instruments issued overseas. Kapur was speaking on the sidelines of a conference to announce the Global Airport Development Conference, to be held in New Delhi starting Wednesday.

DIAL in January raised $289 million (about Rs 1,920 crore at current exchange rate) through a considerably oversubscribed bond issue.

GMR has been looking to list its airports business, aiming to raise $250 million from the share sale.

GMR owns 54 per cent of DIAL and 63 per cent of the Hyderabad Airport. DIAL is 26 per cent owned by the Airport Authority of India and 10 per cent each by Malaysia Airports and Germany's Fraport.

GMR airports, which recently won bids to build and operate a second airport in Goa, said the company would implement that project without a foreign partner.

"The Goa airport project will surely be implemented through a special-purpose vehicle but we may not go for any foreign partner because we do not need anyone. We have won the project based on our own expertise," Kapur said, adding that this will be the first airport project that GMR would build and operate without a foreign partner.